Brilliant stuff from Information is Beautiful. Follow the link and just soak it in:

As ever, this was incredibly difficult to research. Industry figures are hard to get hold of. Some are even secret. Last.FmÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s royalty and payment system is beyond comprehension. (If you can explain it to me, please get in touch)

You can’t make a living selling classical recordings in America (which presumably means anywhere):

A leaked copy of the SoundScan figures for a single week from the fall tells an equally sad tale. In early October, pianist Murray Perahia’s much-praised album of Bach partitas was in its sixth week on the list, holding strong at No. 10. It sold 189 copies. No. 25, the debut of the young violinist Caroline Goulding, in its third week, sold 75 copies.

Which begs the question: how many records are being sold in the mainstream charts? Classical music represents 3% of recorded music sales. So if you can get to No.10 with 189 sales in America in classical, can you get to No. 10 with (189/3)*100, or 6,300 sales?

Historical ironies abound on this, the Strawbs singing Part of the Union on West German television. Twenty-eight years after the war ended, their economy’s taking on the world, while ours is being gently mocked by hairy men in yellow suits.